Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Huge, huge game. Ware was money with the clock running down, a zone-buster against their 2-3, and clutch at the end of the game.

Ware shot 7 of 9 on three-pointers, he had six assists and no turnovers. He led the team in scoring, tied with Thompkins, that is, with 21 points.

Without Dustin's key contributions we would have lost this game by double digits.

With that said, I'd still like him to go to the hole on occasion to keep teams honest, but if he can shoot them at anywhere near a 77 percent clip, shucks, let him fire away.

It may have been just me but I think Dustin had a lot more balance on his shots tonight. I mentioned in a previous post after his poor shooting effort in the tournament that I thought Ware was pointing his feet inward instead of squaring them up to the basket.

The one that he missed late in the 4th quarter seemed to be due to him having tired legs. However, with the clock winding down and Gerald Robinson penetrating toward the basket, Dustin had just enough space to gather himself and launch the game-winner.

Okay, I couldn't resist that title for my post. It's the same one as last year about this time.

This one was a game for the ages, too. Just like the football game battled out between Richt and Johnson.

Fantastic back and forth action. They started out the game shooting lights out. I was surprised that Hewitt chose not to utilize his press. I remember once that Tech just destroyed Georgia with B.J. Elder and crew, and though I don't recall which year it was, I do remember that the key to their victory was Hewitt's defensive pressure.

It wasn't the blow-out I expected, but we scored right about where I thought we would. We need to hit our free throws, though. Gerald Robinson has to be money at the end of the game.

Good heads up time-out by Trey Thompkins. He had picked up his dribble and was stuck against the in-bounds line with his body twisted away from his pivot foot. Everyone was covered and he was off-balance. That play could have easily resulted in a critical turnover. Instead we kept the ball and were able to win the game at the end.

It will be a blow-out either way. They either press us to death and we wilt because they have more depth at guard, or we push them around inside and Trey and JP have field days.

Shumpert can score. We'll have to control him. Brian Oliver can shoot it, and Udofia can get streaky. Jason Morris had a nice outing off the bench last game for them, and Glen Rice goes to the hoop pretty effectively.

My prediction: I just can't bring myself to pick Tech over UGA, even if it is at their place and the home team almost always wins in this series.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Florida still beat Brewer's American University team by a large margin, but Brewer definitely held his own against one of UGA's key hoops rivals. He went 6 of 8 from the floor, 2 of 4 from behind the arc, and 3 of 4 from the line.

I imagine that Troy got stronger during the year that he sat out after his transfer. Perhaps the coaches at American also worked on Brewer's shot some. He consistently brought the ball from his left side over to his right as he shot the ball, which led to a sideways spin, and many times his shots rattled out. He averaged in the mid-twenties for his three-point percentage while at Georgia. This year he is shooting 38 percent from long range, a better percentage than any of the Dawgs players.

Troy had a 24-point game against Howard University and an 18-point outing against Columbia earlier this season. Add those scoring outputs to the 17 against Florida and it sounds like you have a pretty good player. Don't know if he guarded Florida's shooting guard Kenny Boynton, but Boynton went 0 of 9 in 32 minutes.

Perhaps Brewer would have performed just as well under Coach Fox, but you never know. Some players just have to find where they fit best.